Concept
What is Preventive Action?
In 30 seconds
Preventive action is action taken to eliminate the cause of a potential nonconformity that has not yet occurred. In the current edition of ISO 9001 it is addressed through risk-based thinking rather than a separate clause.
How does it work?
- Potential problems are identified from risk analysis, trend data or lessons learned from similar products.
- An action that removes the possible cause is planned and implemented.
Often confused with
Preventive action and read-across
Applying a corrective action to similar products and processes (read-across) has a preventive effect, but its trigger is a problem that did occur.
Common mistakes
- Filling in preventive action as just another form field.
- Not feeding lessons learned back into the FMEA and control plan.
From a QWorks perspective
In QWorks what is learned from a case stays visible in the related product and process context, so preventive steps are not limited to a single case.
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